Star Princess

Achim Krull

Age: 64

Occupation:freelance writer

Number of Cruises: 7

Cruise Line: Princess

Ship: Star Princess

Sailing Date: 2010-04-28

Itinerary: Transatlantic and Baltic

The transatlantic voyage was comfortable and pleasant, and the Baltic cruise that followed was too. However, the room service food was mediocre and not available as per their own advertising. In-cabin breakfast choices were far too limited and did not even rate mediocre.
Boarding and disembarkation were extremely well organized although the pressure to take Princess transfer services was there and unwarranted. We were warned when disembarking that taxi services in Copenhagen were limited and expensive; in fact the taxi service took us to our hotel at the same price that the Princess shuttle would have charged to drop us off downtown where we would still have had to take a cab.
Food in the dining room was not particularly good, totally lacking in spicing and flavour. Even the old standby of steak was not up to par. After being on board for 28 days, our table crew still could not remember that we liked to have tea with our dinner or that we did not like ground pepper on our salads.

Entertainment was generally quite good.

The cabin, a standard balcony stateroom, was the smallest balcony cabin we have ever had. When you are on board for more than a week this matters. Besides the bed there were only two chairs and a dresser; no sofa or coffee table, which would not have fit anyway.

MEDIOCRE AT BEST!

The lack of spicing produced a flavourless hodgepodge. Only the ceasar salad was spicy and then only because we asked for extra parmesan. Often the food was overdone and dry, especially the fish dishes. We always had to ask for extra sauce on our food. Even after 28 days, our table crew could not remember to do that without asking.

We attended a special English-style "pub lunch" in one of the specialty restaurants one day - the fish and chips were both soggy and tasteless, typically British.

Desserts were pretty good, but the quality varied from day to day.

The one highlight was the International Cafe which served snack sandwiches, shrimp salads, etc. which were generally good and had excellent servers. The cappacino was weak but bearable.

TINY! So small we will never do a longer trip on the Star Princess again. Ever!

Entertainment - the theatre shows - were good, and the port lectures were excellent. The entertainment in the main court was pretty good as well, especially the four women who played classical string music.

For the Baltic part of the cruise we strongly recommend the various tours offered in St. Petersburg. They are pricy but good. The same can be said for Talinn's city tour and Gdansk/Danzig. For the other cities, you can often see much the same using the local, and much cheaper, hop on - hop off bus tours. On the atlantic portion of the trip, the Brugges city tour was fabulous.

Boarding after some of the tours was aweful because of limited access to the various x-ray machines and security personel, which meant often 2000 people returned from tours within the same half hour period. On several occasions the cruise staff left people standing on the dock without shade, for over an hour before the security people began processing. There were people in wheelchairs and with mobility issues left sitting and standing for that time, without even the offer of water. That happened several times, not just once.

I would certainly do this trip again, but not on Princess. The Star Princess cabin is a deal breaker, and the mediocre food does not help. Cabins on other Princess ships were larger, although the in-cabin food was not, and the dining experience, while acceptable, also not up to our expectations.

A cruise on Celebrity lines offered much better food, both in the dining room and in the cabin.